Physical Health Cambodia Project #32418

Clean Water for 500 Families in Cambodia

by Concordia Welfare and Education Foundation

Project Report | Nov 13, 2024
One Filter = 15 Years of Clean Water

By Hayley Steinbauer | Communications

Romaskean and her 4 year-old son, Rothana

“The water looked clear and clean,” Romaskean said, “but it started to give us diarrhea and hurt our stomachs.”

In partnership with CLEAN Cambodia, Concordia Welfare & Education Foundation (CWEF) gave Romaskean and her family a bio-sand filter in June 2023. Biosand filters, also called slow sand filters, use a combination of sand and a biofilm to remove pathogens, iron, and turbidity from the water. Users dump water into the top of the filter, and it slowly passes through the biofilm layer and then through the sand layers, purifying the water in the process.

The benefit of a biosand filter is they can last up to 15 years and don’t require electricity or fuel to work. Each day Romaskean must pour water into the biosand filter three times to keep the biofilm alive and active. Because Romaskean received training on how to maintain the water filter, she knows how to regularly add water and swirl the top later of sand. During a visit to her village in November 2024, CWEF staff checked-in on Romaskean and her biosand filter.

She uses it every day and her family continues to no longer have the symptoms caused by waterborne illnesses. She is grateful for her long-lasting, easy to use purification system that provides clean drinking water to her whole family.

THANK YOU for your generous giving through CWEF! Because of donors like you, Romaskean can enjoy a healthy life without waterborne illnesses!

Romaskean with her new life-changing water filter!

Romaskean lives in this house with 7 other people

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Aug 8, 2024
Worms Lived in The Water

By Kanhchana | CWEF Director in Cambodia

CWEF Director in Cambodia interviewing a villager

In Dal village in Cambodia, 300 Jerai and Khmer people live in 40 small wooden houses built close together. If you ever wanted to stop in for a visit there, you would need to speak either the Khmer or Jerai languages to join the conversation. The Khmer villagers there only communicate in Khmer. But the Jerai villagers speak their own language and also speak Khmer.

To earn a living, all the people in Dal village grow cashew nuts and cassava roots on their farms. But in the dry seasons, they look for opportunities to earn money working as laborers outside their village.

For water, the people of Dal village used to drink water directly from a well without boiling it. After drinking the water, the people would sometimes get stomach aches and diarrhea or even throw up. Worms lived in their well water. And it was making them sick.

In the past, another organization donated water filters to the village. But the water filters were very fragile and broke easily; so that water-filtering solution did not last long. Because of your generous donations through CWEF, we were able to give all the people of Dal village an affordable sustainable kind of water filter called a biosand water filter.

We took time to educate the people on how to use and properly maintain their filters; so that a single filter should last 15-20 years!! Your generosity provided 60 biosand water filters in total to the families in Dal village, and because of you, the whole village can now easily drink clean worm-free water every day!!

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Because of you, an entire community of 300 Cambodian people is currently enjoying living with fewer illnesses and greater productivity! THANK YOU FOR GENEROUSLY PARTNERING WITH CWEF BY GIVING WORM-FREE WATER TO THE PEOPLE IN DAL VILLAGE!

See more of the deeply impactful ways you can equip young people from disadvantaged communities through CWEF by following us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn!

Read all about how your generosity helped a man named Yun be healthy enough to go to work by clicking here.

A Dal villager receiving a biosand water filter

Mother and child receiving a biosand water filter

Working around the village

Sitting on the steps of their wooden home

Raising pigs on the farm

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Apr 12, 2024
No More Boiling Water

By Kanhchana | CWEF Director Cambodia

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